1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for outputting image data in accordance with requested output conditions, a method of controlling the same, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A current image processing apparatus can process, as process target image data, data received from a personal computer (PC) or the like and data obtained by causing a scanner to read a document image printed on paper. As for the output method, the image processing apparatus has not only a print function but also a transmission function of transmitting data to an external device. That is, the image processing apparatus handles data of different types depending on the process target data input method or output method.
Since the current image processing apparatus needs to handle data of various types, there has been proposed a method of efficiently processing these data. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-066188 proposes a document management system which generates separated data of photos, characters, tables, and line arts contained in process target image data, thereby facilitating use and manipulation of the data.
However, this prior art has the following problem. Although the prior art enables to handle data in various formats, data for the processes are stored individually. For example, when transmitting process target image data to a printing apparatus to print or transmitting the image data to a display apparatus to display, data having different formats are stored in a memory or the like depending on the devices of the transmission destinations. That is, the prior art requires a large-capacity memory area to store data having formats corresponding to the devices of the output destinations.